Hi, my name is Jo
I am the Area Manager for Calderdale and am based at St Anne’s Area Office in Huddersfield. I am responsible for a variety of services for people with a learning disability in Calderdale. These include nursing and residential care homes and supported living projects. I support 11 Managers to provide person centred services to all of the service users. I work jointly with other Area Managers and outside agencies to promote a consistent approach within the organisation.
I started with St Anne’s in May 1994 as a Residential Care Officer. After completing my NVQ 3 in Promoting Independence I successfully applied for a Home Manager position. Through St Anne’s excellent training programme I increased my knowledge and went on to complete my NVQ Assessors Award, Registered Managers Award and level 4 in Care. During this time I managed residential services and supported housing services. The qualifications and experience that I have gained equipped me to achieve the position of Area Manager when this post became vacant in March 2004. Everyday brings different challenges and I find my job very rewarding.
Hi, my name is Benn
I am the Bradford Supported Living Manager and involved in the day to day running of the Bradford Supported Living and outreach services, which includes providing support for all staff within the team and ensuring good quality services for all the clients that we support.
I enjoy working in a team and being part of a new and growing service. I still love going out to work with clients and I love how varied each day and week is. I enjoy working for such a positive organisation. I feel that the work St Anne’s does is very important. I have always felt that the work I do makes real differences to the clients we work with.
I have gained the opportunity to work with a wide range of different clients and members of staff and to provide support to many vulnerable people. I love the fact that my job really does make a difference to peoples lives
I would eventually love to become an Area Manager or move into a different field of work within the organisation (Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol services etc). St Anne’s have always supported me in this by offering good training and advice and by having good systems in place where I can seek advice and support.
I started working for St Anne’s almost 10 years ago as a Support Worker. I had previously worked as a joiner, a lab technician and also in a quarry but had never been completely happy or fulfilled with my work. As soon as I started work with St Anne’s, I knew that this was the type of work I wanted to do. I slowly built up my knowledge of the service and the type of work St Anne’s does and through access to training and NVQ I moved onto becoming a Deputy Manager over in Dewsbury and finally becoming a manager in Bradford.
Hi, my name is David
I started work as a nursing care assistant in Calderdale in February 1993 enjoying the whole new experience of “care work”.Over the years I have enjoyed my job working in most of the homes within Calderdale, either on a permanent basis or on bank shifts.I have also taken full advantage of St. Anne’s training facilities, the main one achieving my NVQ level 3.This helped me to gain access to university, to study full time to become a nurse in learning disabilities.Whilst doing this I still continued to work for St. Anne’s, gaining new knowledge and experiences.I completed my course in January 2004 and continued to work for St. Anne’s as a registered nurse in learning disabilities. Then I decided to increase my experience and moved into the management side, gaining a deputy nursing home post, this then progressed to manager which enabled me to manage a service and find a way to still gain knowledge and experience.
I now manage a short stay break service in Barnsley area, which is a new service to the area, and I am enjoying promotingthe organisation and most importantly my service within the area, and gaining new nursing skills, which enables us to support and care for ourguests, as well as promoting theirevery day living skills. I also enjoy meeting new people and professionals, which helps us to achieve excellent relationships which we require for our service.I still continue to take full advantage of the training facilities, both internally and externally, but most important of all I still continue to enjoy my job in the caring profession.
Hi, my name is Darren
I have worked for St. Anne's for just over 12 months and I am the Project Manager of the Community Support Service in Sheffield. We offer practical and emotional support to clients with mental health needs. My role is very varied but some examples would include recruiting, supervising and managing the staff team, developing the service according to changes in clients needs and funding streams, managing the project budget and networking with stakeholders.
There are lots of different elements to my job that I enjoy but I specifically enjoy supporting staff members and clients to achieve what they want to achieve. I also enjoy meeting and working with members of staff from other organisations who we work closely with.
I enjoy working for St. Anne's as I can relate very closely to the values and objectives of the organisation. I have worked in Health and Social Care for nearly 10 years now and I feel that St. Anne's empowers me to use my knowledge and experiences to help develop my staff team and support clients to live as independently as possible.
Working in mental health has been an experience for me as my previous employment was around homelessness. In the short time I have been at St. Anne's I have gained valuable skills from my colleagues which I can use to enable me to carry out my duties to the best of my ability.
My immediate goal is to ensure that the service I am currently managing is in as strong a position as possible to enable it to survive and grow during the current economic climate. I am a very ambitious person and I am hopeful that one day I may be fortunate enough to work in the Senior Management Team at St. Anne's. I will certainly be offered the opportunity to further my career with St. Anne's as I am regularly given the opportunity to learn about other services and to partake in learning and development opportunities both internally and externally.
It is still early days for me as I have only been with St. Anne's for just over 12 months. That said I have already been given the opportunity to manage another service as well as my own, currently on a temporary basis. St. Anne's are always accommodating of any career progressing learning which I want to partake in and my manager always encourages me to do this.
Hi, my name is Mac
I am the Project Manager of Wakefield Mental Health Services, and have been with St Anne’s since 2007. I have a small staff team of 5.5 staff, who are very skilled and experienced, and motivated to provide a very person centred support service to our clients.
I joined St Anne’s with the knowledge that I had achieved my goal of being a first line manager of a small registered care home, and that was more or less exactly what I was seeking. – In my previous job, I had become tired and jaded with extensive job related travelling, and never being close to clients, which was the very reason that I came into the care sector in the first place.
I find St Anne’s a fascinating organisation to work for.. I owe St Anne’s a lot, I was employed in 2007 aged 57, I have always been grateful that I have not been discriminated against because of my age. Simply put though, that’s the sort of organisation St Anne’s is. That’s why I am happy to be a part of it.
There are many aspects of my job that are immensely enjoyable such as the enthusiasm and commitment of my staff team in providing the best possible service to our clients. I have immense pride and enjoyment seeing the fruition of the work that my staff do. Why do I talk so much about my staff instead of our clients? Simply because it is through our staff that I can have a direct impact in supporting our clients.
I am able to contribute and repay a little I think by working providing some training for the organisation, and taking an active role in some areas like the IT Strategy group and the Mental Health Forum, which is outside of my job role.
St Anne’s has given me the opportunity to develop my project in the way I always wanted but never had time or opportunity before. I have maintained a sense of self worth, and confidence, which only continued practice in care can provide, together with a much better awareness of mental health issues that our clients experience.
I think that as I am approaching the twilight of my working life, St Anne’s has given me the platform that I need to plan my career and working life exit accordingly.
